Texas A&M
Baylor
A&M Comes Up Short Against No. 7 Baylor, 5-2
Apr 20, 2011 | Women's Tennis
April 20, 2011
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - The Texas A&M women's tennis team had one of its better performances of the season but came up short in a 5-2 loss to seventh-ranked and six-time defending Big 12 Conference champion Baylor tonight at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
"I'm really happy with the overall look of how the match went," A&M coach Bobby Kleinecke said. "We are not satisfied. We'll never walk away from a match where we are satisfied with just playing close. We needed to win this. That was our goal and we fell short, but what we asked the players to do I'm very pleased with."
The teams were locked in a dogfight for the doubles point, but Baylor eventually prevailed to take the 1-0 lead.
A&M's Christi Liles and Christi Potgieter gave the Aggies an early edge with an 8-5 comeback win at No. 1 doubles. The pair dropped the first two games but stayed within striking distance against 53rd-ranked Karolina Filipiak and Nina Secerbegovic. The Aggies remained down a break and trailed, 6-5, before they caught fire and won the next three games to take the match.
"I was really proud of them for sticking with it and believing," Kleinecke said. "We lifted our level of play there. We hit a lot of great shots and just took it from them."
The scores on the other two courts were much closer with both A&M teams coming back from two-game deficits to tie the matches at 5-5 on both courts. At the No. 3 line, A&M's Sheri Olivier and Nazari Urbina broke serve to take a 6-5 lead against Diana Nakic and Sona Novakova, but the Baylor tandem broke back to knot the score at 6-all. The teams then held serve for the next two games, with A&M fighting off a match point to even the score at 7-7. Baylor, however, won the next two games to win the match, 9-7.
The crucial point was finally decided at the No. 2 line where A&M's Morgan Frank and Stephanie Davidson came back to tie Taylor Ormond and Jelena Stanivuk, 6-6, after trailing 5-3. The teams were on serve with the score even at 7-7, but A&M double faulted at game point as Baylor broke to take an 8-7 lead. The Lady Bears then held serve to when the match, 9-7, and clinch the doubles point.
"The key to this match was the doubles point," Kleinecke said. "We had opportunities to win the doubles point and we didn't get it and that hurt us as the night went on. We just didn't make the shots."
A&M began singles by winning the first set on four of six courts.
"We challenged the team to come out with as much fight and belief and the attitude that they were going to win the singles, and they did," Kleinecke said. "I can't be disappointed at all in what we laid out here in the match tonight as far as our effort and our belief and everything else."
Baylor took a 2-0 lead as Ormond was first off with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Lauren Santacroce at No. 6. Potgieter then put the Aggies on the scoreboard after finishing off Filipiak at No. 4. The A&M freshman didn't drop a game in the first set and won the match, 6-0, 6-3.
"I told (Potgieter), `I've been waiting for you to play a match like this,'" Kleinecke said. "She has some bright things ahead of her. I'm looking forward to that, and I know she is, too."
Baylor took a 3-1 lead after 15th-ranked Novakova defeated 30th-ranked Urbina, 6-1, 6-3, at the No. 1 line. Meanwhile, the three other courts where A&M won the first set would go to a third set as Baylor earned a split at the No. 2, 3 and 5 lines.
"I don't think we let up," Kleinecke said. "(Baylor) made the difference. We might not have played as well as we did in the first set. They stepped up their play and had a factor in that."
Frank put A&M within 3-2 as she won her sixth consecutive match and handed Secerbegovic her first loss at the No. 2 line this season. Frank won the first set, 6-1, but Secerbegovic, who entered the match 11-0 at the No. 2 line, including 8-0 in Big 12 matches, took the second set by the identical score. Frank then jumped out to a 5-1 third-set lead before winning it, 6-2, to improve to 9-1 in conference matches.
Liles and Davidson also had won first sets, but Baylor came back to win the next two sets on both courts. Davidson defeated 107th-ranked Stanivuk, 6-1, in the first set at No. 5, but Stanivuk won each of the next two sets, 6-1, 6-1, to win the match and clinch the winning point for the Lady Bears.
Liles had come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the first set, 6-3, against 47th-ranked Nakic at the No. 3 line. Nakic, however, won the next two sets, 6-2, 6-2, to account for the final 5-2 score.
"Baylor is a great team," Kleinecke said. "Give them credit. They beat a lot of people this year and we stood toe to toe with them and I'm proud of what we showed tonight."
A&M drops to 13-7 overall and 6-4 in the Big 12 with one match remaining in the regular season. The Lady Bears (21-3), who have won 11 straight against the Aggies, maintain their hold onto the league lead as they improve 9-1 in conference play.
A&M concludes the regular season Friday at home against No. 41 Texas Tech at 6 p.m. It will be 12th Man Day, and all current A&M students will be admitted free by showing their student ID. In addition, it will be Senior Night. Seniors Davidson, Frank and Liles will be playing the final home match of their four-year A&M careers.
"We are still hungry, and Texas Tech has an unbelievable season," Kleinecke said. "They are going to come in here with guns blazing and we better be ready, and we will be ready. If we come out with the same intensity that we did tonight, I'll take whatever result we get. We need that same intensity."
Free live video and scoring of A&M matches is available at AggieAthletics.com. Also follow on Twitter @AggieTennis.
No. 7 Baylor 5, No. 30 Texas A&M 2
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station, Texas
Attendance: 351
Singles
1. (#15) Sona Novakova (BU) def. (#30) Nazari Urbina (TAMU), 6-1, 6-3
2. Morgan Frank (TAMU) def. (#39) Nina Secerbegovic (BU), 6-1, 1-6, 6-2
3. (#47) Diana Nakic (BU) def. Christi Liles (TAMU), 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
4. Christi Potgieter (TAMU) def. Karolina Filipiak (BU), 6-0, 6-3
5. (#107) Jelena Stanivuk (BU) def. Stephanie Davidson (TAMU), 1-6, 6-1, 6-1
6. Taylor Ormond (BU) def. Lauren Santacroce (TAMU), 6-1, 6-4
Doubles (Baylor wins the point)
1. Liles/Potgieter (TAMU) def. (#53) Filipiak/Secerbegovic (BU), 8-5
2. Ormond/Stanivuk (BU) def. Davidson/Frank/ (TAMU), 9-7
3. Nakic/Novakova (BU) def. Sheri Olivier/Urbina (TAMU), 9-7
Order of finish:
Doubles: 1, 3, 2
Singles: 6, 4, 1, 2, 5*, 3
*-clinched match
Team records:
Texas A&M: 13-7, 6-4 Big 12
Baylor: 21-3, 9-1 Big 12
Follow A&M on Twitter @AggieTennis.
